The Energon Pub

The new Transformers: Battle Masters Fight Night Optimus Prime vs Megatron sets are starting to show up at retail. The image below comes to us from Seibertron.com member jsmith41 who sighted the set at a Toys"R"Us store in Los Angeles priced at $29.99. These are similar is style to the old Rock 'Em Sock 'Em robot game.

Take note of that full shelf - it'll be that way in 6 months heating those shelves up when everyone is desperately searching for Generations Jetfire or Arcee ECT. Even the photographer didn't buy one (I'm guessing there).

Indeed, the "Fight Night" in question will be Thanksgiving night; these things may as well have "90% off Black Friday Special" printed on them in advance. For the next 2/3 of the year, not a punch shall be thrown, and the full legion shall maintain peace, harmony, and dust.

That's...certainly a new look for Megatron. Is he betraying a bit of respect for Optimus by trying out the mouthplate look?

Amelie wrote:Take note of that full shelf - it'll be that way in 6 months heating those shelves up when everyone is desperately searching for Generations Jetfire or Arcee ECT. Even the photographer didn't buy one (I'm guessing there).

Ha, that barely counts as a full shelf. I'm guessing that's just one case and they could have shoeboxed (fancy merchandizing term for "stack on top of") another case on top of that if they had more. Or maybe some sold who knows?

It's always fun reading comments from people who are uninterested in a literally brand new product, saying they will sit on shelves for months. As a merchandiser who's stocked Toys R Us shelves I've seen product fly out the door so fast I've had to fill the gaps the next day, regardless of if I think it would sell or not. Surprisingly, little kids (who I'm guessing these are aimed at) may just have different taste in toys than us adults do. Shocking, right?

Spleenzorio wrote:It's always fun reading comments from people who are uninterested in a literally brand new product, saying they will sit on shelves for months. As a merchandiser who's stocked Toys R Us shelves I've seen product fly out the door so fast I've had to fill the gaps the next day, regardless of if I think it would sell or not. Surprisingly, little kids (who I'm guessing these are aimed at) may just have different taste in toys than us adults do. Shocking, right?

Lol - need to patronize (I have 13 years of Retail experience, 7 of those at manager and supervisory levels ) - I used to do merchandising in the toy section for the supermarket I worked in. It was usually pretty easy to tell which figures were going to fly off the shelves or gather depressing dust. I guess thats a slightly different scenario as you aren't necessarily going shopping in a supermarket for toys, though, as opposed to an actual toy store.

I often prefer the toys with lots of fun play value if I'm going non-vintage (a big reason I really like Armada toys) as opposed to the collectible ones (I have my G1 stuff for that).

The problem with toys like these are that they're "generic" franchise toys. It could just as easily be Thor\Loki or Batman\Joker than Prime\Megatron and those are typically the ones I see languishing on the shelves for months.

Hasbro's official product website has been been updated with two new Transformers Battle Masters figures, Lockdown and Soundwave. As you can see in the images mirrored below, both are departures from their traditional looks, which has been the case with most characters released in this game. The game is similar to Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots.

I don't get these things. Optimus looks like Optimus, but nobody else looks even remotely like themselves. Usually these sidelines like to be clear homages. I mean, why didn't they just call this Lockdown "Bulkhead" instead? Just seems like these were intended to be something else entirely then they got a bunch of Transformer names slapped on them without any rhyme or reason.

Interresting

Do all of the Battle Masters have diabetes?

The Lockdown actually looks like it takes a few cues from Animated Lockdown, though he clearly should've been nicknamed "THE LETHAL LEFT-HOOK"

But Soundwave's just random on every level. Not only does the sculpt suggest Bayniverse Starscream, but his nickname...um...isn't "THE SCOURGE OF THE SKY", y'know, Scourge?

Noideaforaname wrote:I don't get these things. Optimus looks like Optimus, but nobody else looks even remotely like themselves. Usually these sidelines like to be clear homages. I mean, why didn't they just call this Lockdown "Bulkhead" instead? Just seems like these were intended to be something else entirely then they got a bunch of Transformer names slapped on them without any rhyme or reason.

Hmmm, more like BWII Dirge

welcometothedarksyde wrote:

Noideaforaname wrote:I don't get these things. Optimus looks like Optimus, but nobody else looks even remotely like themselves. Usually these sidelines like to be clear homages. I mean, why didn't they just call this Lockdown "Bulkhead" instead? Just seems like these were intended to be something else entirely then they got a bunch of Transformer names slapped on them without any rhyme or reason.

Hmmm, more like BWII Dirge

Oh yeah, I didn't notice his plane kibble at first...maybe Cybertron Jetfire/Dreadrock?

I have absolutely no idea what is the point of this mini-line. I saw the duo of Optimus and Megs in store and those also look NOTHING like the bots they are supposed to be. They look all the same, without ANY features that refer to the character! They are just a bunch of random vehicons! What the flying hell? Who's falling for that? Even the cluless parent cannot be fooled by these. Why does these toys have the TF name slapped on it when none of those bots look like any TF characters from any universes?

Seriously.

Huh, never expected a mainstream homage to Marvel Soundwave.




In all honesty, I'm not surprised. These things aren't even trying and they're not worth our anger.

Shuttershock wrote:In all honesty, I'm not surprised. These things aren't even trying and they're not worth our anger.

I'm not angry. I'm just confused.

My headcanon:

Hasbro boss: Okay, who's the smart-ass who greenlighted these things?

Silence.

Hasbro boss: Sigh... Now I need to find some mean to market those robots nobody know that look like nothing.

A timid intern raise his hand.

Hasbro boss: What now, Junior?

Junior: We could market them as Transformers?

Hasbro boss: I dont see any TF here. These bots look like nothing. You expect people to buy that?

Junior: F...fingers crossed?

Hasbro boss. Whatever. It's better than nothing. Junior, you can keep your job.

Junior: Thank... you?

Hasbro boss: Now get back to work.

I don't think that was an intentional homage to Marvel Soundwave. I think it was just coincidence. There was clearly very little thought put into these horrible toys. In most cases, the only thing the toy has in common with the character it's supposed to be is the main color. In fact, I'd bet that this was supposed to be Shockwave and they just screwed up the name.

These are just.....bad.

I think these would have gone over better if they hadn't tried to pretend they were Transformers-related. Maybe give them their own cartoon or something, something along the lines of B-Daman meets Real Steel or something. But as Transformers merchandise? They just don't fit.

Nemesis Primal wrote:I think these would have gone over better if they hadn't tried to pretend they were Transformers-related. Maybe give them their own cartoon or something, something along the lines of B-Daman meets Real Steel or something. But as Transformers merchandise? They just don't fit.

Reminds me of a low-tech Rumble Robots from a while ago. And yeah, call them literally anything else and they might have done alright.

They're not bad toys, just awkward TRANSFORMERS toys, only Optimus looks somewhat like himself, they should have been their own line, that or actually made them resemble the characters they're supposed to be, it wouldn't have been that hard to do.